Smudged River
by Eastern Apple
Summary: What if Smudge followed Rusty into the forest?
1. Chapter 1

All that I can say for sure is that Rusty is crazy. Loonie, completely bonkers. Likely insane or something close to that. No, insane. No way he is all right in the head with his _ideas of adventure._

I mean, who else has ever wanted to _willingly_ go into that forest. Well, other than Henry and Rusty. It was dark, creepy and overall looks like it wanted to eat you up until you're nothing but skin and bones. Or turn savage, like those stories Henry tells.

Then again, Henry can't honestly remember the time of day it is. Plus he's so lazy so the stories he tells are all likely untrue. Like a cat like him would ever move from his house. So going to claw his face in if the whole 'savage cats' thing turns out to be false.

"Rusty are you sure about this?" I ask, mentally kicking myself in the rear-end for following the demented fire-coloured kitten. I was bonkers for even following him!

Rusty gave me a flick of his ear, dismissing my worry, that two-bitted kit- "No worries Smudge, out and in! It'll be quick!" He trudged forward, like he owned the place. He likely does, as no cat would ever live in a place like this. He can keep this soggy patch of land that bee for brained...

"Last time you said that you stuck your nose in that thorn bush with the bright flowers." I grumble, but followed him at a more sedate pace. Because like _hell_ I was going to be wary, or even claim that. I am _not_ scared out of my fur, where did you hear that? Not at all. Nope. "You had thorns in your paws for days!"

A twig snapped and I jumped, nearly out of my fur. Rusty giggled and lifted his foot, where a small stick was under his paw. "Rusty-" I growled out, and it did _not_ sound like a whine. Shut up.

"Relax Smudge, we're only going to catch a mouse." With grace that only a brain-dead dog could have, Rusty clambered up a fallen tree trunk.

"Catch a mouse! Sure, sure," I mocked as I followed, leaping over the log instead of making a fool of myself and climbing it, "'One mouse Smudge!' Yeah, catching a mouse, then we'll be caught by the forest cats!" I puff myself up, leaning forward only a bit to try and scare Rusty so we'd go back. Back home. Where it is warm. And nice. And not scary and creepy and I can lay in the nice warm basket of 'laundry' that just came out of the spinny white box.

Why did I decide to follow him again? Right...stupid Rusty and his guilt trips.

Rusty turned around just in time to see me fluff up. "They eat cats like us for breakfast!" I complained once again.

"One mouse Smudge, and then we'll go home." Rusty gave me those eyes that would make anyone do anything, "I promise."

"What good will that do when we're **dead**?!"

"We're not going to die Smudge."

"And how would you know? Can _you_ see into the future?!" I tried to convince once again. It didn't work.

Rusty gave me a glare, an annoyed glare, "You can go back if you want to."

"And leave you? Out here?" I scoff, sitting down on the dirty ground. "No thanks. Now go catch that mouse so we can _leave_." I stressed the last word to let him know how important that was. Leaving. Going away from this creepy place. Saying 'Goodbye' to the forest. For. Ever.

Rusty gave a short purr, "I'll be back soon," and he disappeared into the undergrowth better than you would think a bright orange cat could.

"Soon or I'm leaving you." He couldn't hear me, I suspect, so I hunkered down and waited, looking at my surroundings. All in all it was creepy and dark, with a tangent smell that honestly stunk like wet leaves and decaying tree bark. I looked at a tree and saw white lines.

Because curiosity killed the cat, which I'm pretty sure my humans said every single time they found me in the spinny white box that held all the warm clothes, I went towards the scratches for a closer look. The white lines looked like claw marks, of an animal, no a cat, climbing up it.

Well, mouse dung.

"This is just great." I muttered to myself before scratching my collar, listening for anything that could alert me to something. The soft tinkle of the bell, which I have long since become immune to it's annoying sound, danced as my hind leg came to my neck.

I heard a crunch of leaves under the bell. It was quiet, and I knew Rusty would be bounding over, not caring of all the sound he was making. The bell he had was not sounding, so it wasn't him.

Which means it was a forest cat. Aw... this day is getting better and better. I turn to the sound, tensing up, but before long a rabbit popped out. At least, I think it was a rabbit. It looked nothing like Floppers or Chester that the little female persons kept in cages. It was an ugly brown in colour, but it had the same generic shape as the caged rabbits.

I relaxed before another twig snap made me jump and spin around in a circle. The rabbit hopped away as fast as it could.

"Rusty!" I called, "This is not funny!" There was no answer. The slight smell of cat was close, closer than I thought it would be. Or maybe that was a new smell, the whole place smelled like a bunch of cats. I crouch down, already knowing that if it was that lunatic of a cat, he would've already pounced. I fluffed up my fur as much as I could, backing up into the scarred tree. Oh, I knew this was a bad idea. Stupid Smudge. Stupid stupid stupid stupid...

"I swear, Rusty-" I was only doing this to make myself feel better, because there was no way in ever loving 'God' that was Rusty.

I knew coming here was a bad idea.

That was my thought as I saw a massive scarred tabby leap out at me. Terror froze me and it was too late to dodge and the tabby was on me. He pinned me down and with massive knifes he tore into my back.

I yowled, twisting my body to try and get out from underneath the forest cat. With a stroke of luck, he tore into my scruff with his jagged fangs and flung me into a tree somewhere in the small clearing. I hit the wooden pole hard, but scrambled as fast as I could and ran away from him.

I was already lost, so why did it matter? I just had to get away from that... _savage_.

Rusty was on his own. I'm not going back for _anything_. Not even if that was the way to my persons.

Still, I ran, stretching my legs to their maximum and making them go as fast as they could. He was right behind me, snarling and crashing through the forest and gaining on me no matter how fast I went.

Something snapped me back, giving me whiplash. I whimpered, to see my collar had snagged a branch that would not budge. I pulled and pulled but before long the tabby was on me again and the force of him barreling into me was enough to snap the collar off my neck.

He chomped down hard my back leg, making me yelp once again in pain.

Oh why did I follow Rusty?

I gave him a kick with my free leg, surprising him more than injuring, and took off running again, though it was more like a very fast limp. I saw a river coming up close, just beyond the trees.

I was at the shore before the tabby threw me into the water. The shock of the cold liquid made me freeze long enough for the stream to carry me down. A few second later, I breached the surface and gave a gulp of air.

A splash landed close to me, covering me with another wave of water, pulling me under before another set of sharp teeth grabbed onto my scruff. I writhed, thinking it was that tabby once again. The gentle hold tighten a bit.

"Relax kit." A light voice growled lightly into my ear. I froze, coughing to try and get the water out of my lungs. The cat holding me soon moved to the shore, setting me down gently as I cough up water.

I bet I looked like a drowned rat.

I looked up to see a group of three cats, a reddish-brown tom, and two grey ones. One, the she-cat was soaking. I deduced she must've been the one to save me.

The grey tom sniffed the air before turning and looking down on me, "What are you doing so far from the two-leg place kit?"

I only shivered, unable to make an intelligent answer from my chattering. "Hush Stonefur," The wet she-cat growled lightly, "he can't be more than three moons old." Three moons? What...wait...what was I thinking again? It's...going black.

"Mistyfoot-"

"-him to Croo-. -Deci-what to-"

My eyes were slowly closing shut, unable to keep them open any longer and I felt my scruff grabbed again. How many times do they have to do this to me? I'm not even that young and mother stopped carrying us by the scruff a long time ago.

The last feeling I had was being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking motions of being carried once again.

* * *

 **So...just seeing the response. Found this thing and thought I'd might give it a shot. Haven't read these books in over, gosh, 3-4 years? (Thank Wiki), so there will be a bunch of inconsistencies.**

 **I haven't published anything in a couple months, RL things like that. And the lack of motivation to write.**

 **little tidbits:**

 **'word or phrase' = something Smudge has heard from two legs.**

 **This is based off this "what if Rusty was in Riverclan" Au story that i can't seem to find anymore... And somehow i Like Smudge(?) so here we go!**

 **Please tell if this is great, fantastic or just plain stupid!**


	2. Chapter 2

\- Update Feb 2 2018 -

Hello everyone! Sorry for abandoning you all for a few years! I don't have good news in that I'm going to be updating this story, however I would like to explain to you all for my unexplained absence as quickly as possible. If you would like a somewhat more in depth explanation on to my whereabouts, my profile has more info. The shortest story I'm going to tell you is that I've moved sites, as this one's layout started to get more and more confusing to work with and the stories becoming more and more lackluster.

Good news though! I'm writing again, and perhaps this story will be one of rewritten ones on the new site! If you would like, I would love to see you on AO3, with my new username being DocHolliday! Just send me a PM there and we can chat! If not, then perhaps this is farewell, and I hope that your life becomes one of fulfillment and you win the lottery!

Thats all! Ja Ne!


End file.
